Chef Tim Ma‘s ambitious Arlington restaurant, Water & Wall, served its last dinner on Tuesday night, Valentine’s Day.
“It’s a natural progression,” says Ma, who also operates Chase the Submarine in Vienna, and Kyirisan in DC. “We had our resources spread out a little bit, and we’re consolidating them into the two restaurants.”
Water & Wall first opened in 2013 as a larger, modern American sister venture to Maple Ave. Restaurant in Vienna. Ma parted ways with his flagship concept in 2015. Since that time, he and wife/business partner Joey Ma opened their popular Vienna sandwich shop and finer-dining, French-Asian restaurant in Shaw. Ma is also a consulting chef for Ten Tigers Parlour, an Asian cafe and lounge in Petworth from restaurateur brothers Ian and Eric Hilton.
Ma says the decision to close was also partly due to family, with three young children at home. Still, he says saying goodbye to Water & Wall is bittersweet.
“It’s sad to leave Arlington,” says Ma. “We did a lot there, and we were one of the first to push the dining there a little bit.”
Anna Spiegel covers the dining and drinking scene in her native DC. Prior to joining Washingtonian in 2010, she attended the French Culinary Institute and Columbia University’s MFA program in New York, and held various cooking and writing positions in NYC and in St. John, US Virgin Islands.
